Better LivingthroughLinking

Daniel Chudnov - 2009-05-27 - dchud at umich eduTexas Conference on Digital Libraries 2009

MY OPINIONSDO NOT REFLECT

THOSE OF:MY EMPLOYERTHE US GOV’T

PRES. BARACK OBAMATHE DETROIT RED WINGS

•doing “web” better

•linking data

•steps you can take today

1.

doing “web” better

we’ve been buildinga web

for a long time

Photo cc-sa by osunick on flickr, http://tinyurl.com/oy8qw942

which brings usto about, say,

1996.

xml1997

db-backed sites1998

xml-backed sites1999

blog tools2001

better search2002

rssopenurloai-pmhsrw/u

opensearchmicroformats

redesignredesignredesignredesignredesignredesign

scriptsincludes

templatesframeworks

cmsseo

User. Generated. Content.

OMG ROFLMAO LOLZ

how we use the webevolves

how we build the webevolves

it’s not done yet,but

we are stillbuilding a web

here’s what’s next

2.

linking data

links matter

just ask Google

but we knew that

for example

which, basically,was this

the webis made of links

but waitthere’s more

which, basically,was this

butnobody knows that

...unless theyknow to look...

...which is theproblem.

more to the point

Google won’t find this.

http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?AuthRecID=2852966&v1=1&HC=3&SEQ=2009052703254

5&PID=XGImKyGgg1Cofw8uO3IFxAvS

what’s wrongwith this picture?

http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?AuthRecID=2852966&v1=1&HC=3&SEQ=2009052703254

5&PID=XGImKyGgg1Cofw8uO3IFxAvS

system info

session info

unknowableinfo

unbookmarkable

screenscraping required

unscriptable

item record authority record

not linked

a holdings recorddoesn’t help

Google

but wait, there’s more

not connected

not findable

not relevant

ouch.

despite our efforts

the expense ofdigitizing

care and feeding of

cranky coders

the overheadof

authority control

we count onGoogle to guess

at relevance

inside our systemswe tweak

and improve

across our systemswe can

only hope

time todo

better

enterLinked Data

“Linked Data”is

data in the web

“Linked Data”is

a movement

“Linked Data”is

dogma

“Linked Data”is

worth a close look

so what is it?

a way tolink

better

a way tomake

concepts explicit

a way toconnectour stuff

item record authority record

a way toconnect

these together

draw our stuffdeeper

into the web

not justfiles to download

but part of the web

how?

use URIs as names for thingsuse HTTP URIs

provide useful informationinclude links to other URIs

http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

break down conceptsmake them “pages”

the old

the new

the old

bad URL

screenscrapingrequired

few links out

no links in

the newgood URL

alternateformats

some links out

more links in

http://lccn.loc.gov/84759993

LCCN Permalink

alternateformats

more links out

clean URI

discoverable, parseablealternate formats

apply these ruleseverywhere

resource URI

rel=alternate

rel=contents

rel=alternate

(already has)resource URI

resource URI

resource URI

arrowsbecome

cross-references

why?

it becomescrawl-ablemine-able

integrated accessthrough

smart crawl / index

precision improveswith

rich metadataexplicitly linked

recall improveswith

explicit linksthrough authority recs

bringprecision / recallof clunky OPACs

to open web

this isdoing web stuff

better

just by doingHTML / HTTP

use URIs as names for thingsuse HTTP URIs

provide useful informationinclude links to other URIs

http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

doesn’t fit the web,it is the web

many examples already

LIBRISid.loc.gov

chronicling america

if i squint just right...

the “LOD cloud”

a“ready reference”

collection

make this

useful

turn thisinto

linked data

seems obvious,right?

3.

steps you can take today

how tolink your data

(or, About All ThatOther Stuff You Have)

use URIs as names for thingsuse HTTP URIs

provide useful informationinclude links to other URIs

http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

first:clean, cool URIs

for data concepts

instead of this:/search?subject=Strayhorn,+Billy

do this:/subject/lccn/n81072976

easy to implementtoday

easy to redirecttomorrow

next:offer data views

use <a rel=___ href=___>

<link rel=___>

offer upMARC,

or JSON,or RDF,

or ...

next:relate your datato established

authorities

your search resultsbacked by sharedauthority records

put it all together

visit/subject/lccn/n81072976

• get your content results

• get alternate data views (concept record)

• get links to other useful data

• get links to authorized form

all that’s easy

i promise

the next part’shard

how to make it last

if your site breakswhen links break

cache and link yourself

instead of just this

do this

UChicagocache

same as

just likewe do

in ILS/OPACs

but, yknow,the web way

so if a remotelink breaks

your local linksstill work

also, proxy concepts

your/subject/lccn/n81072976

==my

/subject/lccn/n81072976

but in your app

make every cacheits own

linked data source

instead of just this

UChicagocache

same as

enable this

UChicagocache

same as

same as

same as

same as

same as

if one goes downthe others live on

if others live onit’s all still linked

if it’s all still linkedwe can keep adding

linked datathat lasts

i think

summary

•making the web better

• follow Linked Data practices

•easy changes to make now

summary

•get more value from our data

• get more users to our data

•make relevance explicit

thanks!

dchud at umich eduonebiglibrary.net

twitter.com/dchud